Upgraded technology to aid emergency communication during crises, in remote areas

CLINTON, Tenn. (WVLT) – The Anderson County Emergency Management Agency (ACEMA) has begun communication upgrades across their emergency management fleet by pairing Starlink terminals that have multi-carrier LTE data routing with tri-band mobile radios.

The agency, which is responsible for coordinating disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery operations within Anderson County, claims this would “establish a new level of voice and data resilience for first responders for the most remote areas or in times of devastation when other communications fail.”

In the event of severe weather or technical outages, the system is designed to automatically sense and shift traffic as the vehicle’s onboard router instantly transfers critical data to the vehicle mounted Starlink satellite network without interrupting active operations.

“Step by step, we’re improving our communications posture in Anderson County. We couldn’t do it without the support of our Board of County Commissioners,” Mayor Terry Frank said.

The deployment of advanced tri-band mobile radios go hand-in-hand with the data pipeline. These radios allow emergency managers to communicate seamlessly across all radio frequencies, including the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN), eliminating past communication issues across local, state and national agencies.

“During a large-scale emergency, accurate, real-time communication dictates how efficiently we can deploy resources and protect lives. By combining satellite-backed data redundancy with tri-band radio flexibility, our mobile command assets maintain a secure, high-speed lifeline back to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and uninterrupted voice links with our mutual aid partners, no matter the conditions on the ground,” said EMA Director Joe Mead.

The upgrades would deliver capabilities such as:

• Communication instantly between county, state and city radio systems to improve coordination.
• True dual-path connectivity that leverages public safety-grade LTE paths alongside satellite data, eliminating single points of failure.
• Responders can seamlessly stream live drone video and telemetry, access geographic mapping systems and run incident management software from the field.
• The Starlink system connects automatically while in motion or immediately upon arriving at an incident scene, requiring no manual alignment or calibration.
• Wi-Fi equipped vehicles can project high-speed data around the scene, allowing mutual aid partners to connect, share data and collaborate.

ACEMA said the invested technology will enhance Anderson County’s localized resilience, ensuring that emergency operations can sustain continuous command, control and multi-agency coordination during severe weather events, prolonged power outages or technical infrastructure failures.